Aussie gem group eyes AIM
Article Date: Aug 17 2005Perth-based Kimberley Diamond Company, with a five million-carat resource at Ellendale in Western Australia, is understood to be contemplating an AIM float this autumn.
Headed by South African lawyer, motorbike enthusiast and cookbook author Miles Kennedy, Kimberley, quoted Down Under at the equivalent of 47p, doubled output to 123,300 carats in the year to June. The company, which has recently been selling rough stones from Ellendale No 4 Pipe for an average $121 a carat, expects to reach full production of 700,000 carats from July 2006 and Kennedy says he is 'comfortable we will achieve or exceed' broker forecasts of up to £20 million annual cashflow from then.
Claiming average grades from Ellendale of more than twice those found in the Rio Tinto-backed Argyle deposit in Western Australia, Kennedy says the company is working on a variety of marketing strategies, having outperformed market leader De Beers' rough price rises for three years. Meanwhile, Kimberley has 54 per cent of another Down Under-quoted concern, Blina Diamonds, at 11.4p, which owns parts of the Ellendale field outside Kimberley's licence area.
If diamonds continue in vogue, an AIM move could be well received.
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